Slow Lake Recovery Bodes Murky Future

Biologist Steve Gornak still cannot see clear through to the bottom of Lake Okeechobee, even in water just two feet deep.

A patch of marsh that anglers adored called Little Grassy Island has yet to resurface in a wide plane of blue.

New bulrush remains scarce in waters it once stippled.

Two months after water managers took emergency action to lower lake levels, long-battered aquatic plant life in the north end of Lake Okeechobee is recovering more slowly than state biologists had hoped.

"We expected to be a lot farther along," said Gornak, who works for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "It's bad news for the lake. It just doesn't want to respond quickly."

Water district scientists see more encouraging signs on the lake's south and west sides.

"Conditions continue to improve every week that we go out," said Karl Havens, a water-district chief environmental scientist who has snorkeled through lake shallows to see first-hand what is happening.

Scientists say it is still too early to accurately judge the results of lowering the lake.

Water was discharged for 25 days ending May 21 into agricultural canals and the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers.

And one or two big blasts of hurricane-season rain could lift the lake and stall or cut short the recovery, Gornak warned.

In April and May, the South Florida Water Management District disgorged 130 billion gallons of water through outlets. The releases were made to reinvigorate bulrush and underwater beds of peppergrass and eelgrass, destroyed or winnowed away by six years of high water in Florida's largest lake.

Those plants offer juvenile fish -- including the lake's famed largemouth bass -- a hideout from predators and a place to hunt for insects to eat.

In some places, scientists said, the lake is looking better for being shallower. It stood at 11.8 feet below sea level Wednesday, three feet lower than at the start of water withdrawals.

Along the south shore, near Belle Glade, the water in Pelican Bay and South Bay and west of Ritta Island has turned "very clear," water managers reported.

Havens said he is seeing "dense lawns" of chara, a plant-like algae, spreading lushly across the bottom of those bays, anchoring sediment that waves and wind can stir into the water. In those same areas small, scattered patches of young eelgrass are sprouting, and mature eelgrass beds are expanding, he said.

But north of Fisheating Bay, on the lake's west rim, the lake floor is more barren: "There's very sparse plant growth up there," Havens said.

More birds have appeared on the lake since the water releases.

Before water levels dropped, "in order for wading birds to wade, they needed legs five feet long," Gornak said.

Now those birds are being sighted in larger numbers -- "a lot more than we've seen in the last four or five years," Gornak said.

One species, black-necked stilts, have returned to exposed mud flats to lay their eggs and to feed. Apple snails are slinking up water reeds to lay their white BB-sized eggs, the chief food for endangered kites.

After the lake dropped, water managers were able to torch 2,200 acres of torpedo grass, an invasive weed gobbling up shallow-water fish habitat, and plant hundreds of native Florida trees on man-made islands off the south shore previously overrun with noxious pest plants.

"I'm encouraged," said Alan Steinman, director of the water district's Lake Okeechobee department.

But he added that if the north end doesn't respond more, "it might be possible additional management actions might be necessary."

Why is the northern lake making a more lethargic recovery?

Scientists say the bottom is carpeted with a soft, muddy sediment. That muck and dead plant matter is more readily kicked up by waves than the harder peat floor on the south end. The suspended matter is creating a lingering cola-colored brew that blots out sunlight needed for new plant growth. It is making the lake non-transparent even at depths of one to two feet, Gornak said.

The only clear water in the north end can be found at depths of just two and three inches, where a fringe of new grass is growing, Gornak said. That renewal alone is not sufficient to help fish regenerate well, he said.

"Even if those plants were to survive, you would have a very limited marsh," he said. "It's better than nothing, but it doesn't really do much for the fish population. It's just not enough."

Lake Okeechobee fishing guide Harvey Ford, who owns the lakeside Wanta Linga Motel in Okeechobee, said he is starting to see lake bottom goop give way to patches of open white sand where fish can dig depressions, or beds, to lay their eggs. But he remains concerned about the pace of improvements.

"I think by the end of November, if we don't have anything, it's going to be sad news," he said.

Neil Santaniello can be reached at nsantaniello@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6625.